Exec. Deputy AD at St. Bonaventure U; believer that the name on the front of the uniform is more important than the name on the back; proud Temple WLAX grad/HOF
Congratulations to @CoachswaggyT on being named the head coach of Niagara women's basketball ๐
The Bonnies wish you the best of luck ๐คโช
#OnceABonnieAlwaysABonnie || #Unfurl
So many things in life that seem phenomenal in theory are terrible in reality. The proposed split season for college soccer is one of them. Do I get the practical applications of a split season??? For sure! We complain all the time that soccer is the most demanding sport with the shortest runway. Itโs crazy that we go to 0 to 60 in the amount of time that we do and cram all our games into an 11 week season. (tho at least they extended our season this year). But there are so many variables at play here.
Think back to Covid when most conferences had their seasons cancelled but the P4 did not. They played all fall when the rest of us did not. Then when the NCAA announced we would have our official season in the spring, they all got a second season. This was in essence a trial run for the split season. One of my close friends who coaches at a P4 school detailed an eye opening account of all the reasons why the coaches and the players absolutely hated it. (And keep in mind this is a big time program, lots of national team players, and presumably, the most talented and most committed college players there are)
1) The obvious answer was it was just too long. He said they were all absolutely fried and over it by the end of the spring semester. And again, you are talking the upper echelons of talent and even they were miserable
2) When we are in season and focusing on games, the training is completely different than the spring. We are basically surviving and preparing for each subsequent game. We often say that every bit of player development comes in the spring. Hand in hand with that also comes playing time for the entire bottom, half of your bench who are given game opportunities to prove themselves. The same coach elaborated that those players weโre very discouraged after basically sitting on a bench, the whole YEAR and feeling like they were not getting the individual development that had occurred in a real off-season.
3) After sacrificing more than a decade of life, our seniors are so looking forward to being a โnormalโ person for senior year spring semester. For the first time in life, as long as they can remember, they are able to relax and not have every single choice dictated by a sport for their last few months of โchildhoodโ. The split season obviously requires that they play right up until graduation.
4) College athletes have a huge burnout factor, and the winter break is such a great opportunity for them to take a breather and recharge and come back with a renewed sense of commitment. A split season means that Christmas break is spent grinding with zero downtime as they prepare to come back and play games out of the gate.
5) Never mind where recruiting fits into all of this? Spring is huge for our recruiting efforts and we all just might lose our minds if we are trying to juggle all of that with also running an entire real season.
6) The entire northern half of the country will be completely screwed with this. This past winter that was so cold and snowy is a perfect example. There would have been no way in hell that games would have been able to be played in parts of February and March in many places. There are plenty of schools who have grass fields in cold climates as wellโare they just supposed to now play some games on grass and some on turf and have zero consistency?
7) This will undoubtedly result in schools being forced to build turf fields and create logistical administrative nightmares given that many lacrosse teams and soccer team share fields. Someone else pointed out that it will be a good excuse for schools to eliminate more soccer programs especially when we are at a point with NIL that schools need to figure out how to save money on Olympic sports not create monumental new costs
@NCAA_PR Congrats on passing a change that will hurt most student-athletes w/ less coverage of the sport due to already understaffed sports info departments, less 1 on 1 time w/ overworked trainers, and create more academic strains. But sure, celebrate something most didnโt want.
Survive and advance โก๏ธ
The #Bonnies claimed their spot in the semifinals of the A-10 Tournament after taking down George Washington this afternoon and will move on to face VCU tomorrow ๐
#Unfurl | #A10WLAX
๐๐๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ง ๐ฆ๐๐๐ฆ๐ข๐ก, ๐๐๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ง ๐๐ช๐๐ฅ๐ โ
Freshman Brooke Owens has been named to the Atlantic 10 All-Rookie Team after causing 14 turnovers and scooping 29 groundballs, the second-most on the team. ๐ช
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๐ฅ๐๐ฆ๐๐ก๐ ๐ฆ๐ง๐๐ฅ โญ
Freshman Gracie Williams has been named to the Atlantic 10 All-Rookie Team after scoring 24 points on 16 goals and 8 assists this season. ๐
#Unfurl | #A10WLAX
๐๐ง๐๐๐ก๐ง๐๐ ๐ญ๐ฌ ๐๐๐-๐๐ข๐ก๐๐๐ฅ๐๐ก๐๐ ๐ฆ๐๐๐ข๐ก๐ ๐ง๐๐๐ ๐๐ข๐ก๐ข๐ฅ๐ฆ ๐๐ข๐ฅ ๐ ๐๐๐๐ก ๐ฆ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ก๐๐๐ฅ ๐
The senior's 84 draw controls this season ranked fourth in the conference and second in single-season program history. ๐ฅ
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๐๐ฅ๐๐ฆ๐๐ ๐๐ก ๐ฃ๐๐๐ก๐ข๐ ๐ฏ
Riley Milligan has been named to the Atlantic 10 All-Rookie Team after scoring 28 points on 18 goals and 10 assists this season. ๐ฅ
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๐ฌ๐ข๐จ๐ฅ ๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ฎ๐ฒ ๐๐ง๐๐๐ก๐ง๐๐ ๐ญ๐ฌ ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ฅ ๐ข๐ ๐ง๐๐ ๐ฌ๐๐๐ฅ, ๐๐ฅ๐ข๐ข๐๐ ๐ฃ๐๐ฃ๐๐ฅ ๐
The captain's 60 goals ranked second in the conference and ninth among all national Division I competition. โ
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๐ฌ๐ข๐จ๐ฅ ๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ฎ๐ฒ ๐๐ง๐๐๐ก๐ง๐๐ ๐ญ๐ฌ ๐๐๐๐๐ก๐ฆ๐๐ฉ๐ ๐ฃ๐๐๐ฌ๐๐ฅ ๐ข๐ ๐ง๐๐ ๐ฌ๐๐๐ฅ, ๐๐ฅ๐๐ง ๐๐ข๐๐๐ก๐๐๐๐ข ๐
The captain led the conference with 40 caused turnovers, a figure that ranked 20th among all Division I competition nationally. . ๐
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#Bonnies senior Brooke Piper made the defense look silly in our @ColtonRV Play of the Week ๐คฏ
She finished the regular season with a whopping 6๏ธโฃ0๏ธโฃ goals for the second consecutive year ๐ค